Advertising is rife with awardshows. I’m not sure there is any other industry so set on awarding themselves. and many of you are anxious to win one. And many of you will. And guess what? It won’t make any difference to how you feel the next day. And the next ad you have to do will not be any easier. You won’t be any smarter. Now your careers might dramatically change. Maybe even for the better. But here’s how awards ruin a lot of budding careers. Listen closely because a lot of you will face this and very few of you will make the right decision. You’re at a place that for some reason let something wonderful out the door. Something new and good is going on. Or maybe the agency has a long history of doing good work. So you win an award and right away you get lots of offers. Lot’s of offers to go places for big money. But these places haven’t done any good work since the seventies. But this is you. You can turn things around. They have a hot new CD there. So you go. And a couple years later you realize you’ve become handcuffed by the salary so you stay but you never do anything anybody cares about for the next fifteen years until you are fired as a has been at the age of 40 with nothing to show to anybody that would get you hired. This is a real story that happens every day.

About me

Previously, I use to live the quiet, satisfied life of a kudzu farmer until the birth of the Internet. Suddenly confronted with access to cheap herbal Viagra and profligate Nigerian finance ministers, I realized a wider world was waiting to be discovered. I hightailed it away from the family plantation and encountered a series of hobos – each more brand-savvy than the last – who taught me enough about interactive design to begin my storied career. You can find me most days designing projects that change everything or settin’ on the porch whittlin’ with my son and wife.
Twiiter: @saywha